Sharks President Becher Teases Re-Imagined SAP Center

“We want to make this a literal shark tank.”

That’s just one of the many teases that Jonathan Becher, President of Sharks Sports and Entertainment, provided at Thursday’s State of the Sharks meeting with Sharks365 season ticket members, about the future of SAP Center.

Large improvements to the building structure and concourse will come in the next five-to-seven years. Last August, the San Jose Sharks and City of San Jose agreed to $425-million in funding to improve the building to NHL standards. How is that funding going to improve SAP Center?

“We’re going to launch a website as early as next week, by the end of next week, where we’re going to show some early previews of those images—the ones that have been approved,” Becher said. “We’re going to keep updating that website, probably on a monthly basis in the next two or three years, as more and more things get approved.”

Becher reiterated that all images and arena improvements must be approved by the City of San Jose. Additionally, Becher teased a “puck drop” event in March where more images of SAP Center’s future will be revealed.

The president detailed a few of the ideas they want to implement. For one, he explained that SAP Center was originally designed as a multi-purpose building. In the future, he wants everyone in the building to know that it’s the home of the San Jose Sharks.

“Sharks swim in the ocean, and so we’re going to take the oceanic idea and we’re going to apply it everywhere, and then some,” Becher said. “There are multiple layers to the ocean, and in different layers of the ocean, there are different kinds of sharks, and different kinds of lighting … And we’re going to use that ocean theme to reimagine this as an actual tank.”

He added, laughing, “[But] no water.”

Other changes will improve foot traffic.

“When there are more than 13- or 14,000 people in this building, which there are now all the time, the concourse is too crowded,” Becher admitted. “You almost have to use your sharp elbows to get by people. We’ve got to figure out to take 4-to-5,000 people off the concourse. If you look at modern building designs, very few buildings are one concourse buildings. They are two or three-concourse buildings.”

“About 73% of the guests come through the south entrance, the one coming off of Santa Clara,” Becher said. “That’s too many. So, we’re gonna punch some new holes in the building, and open up new ways to get into the building as well.”

The president also wants to better use SAP Center’s bottom “arena level” and top “penthouse level” for fans. That would include some “outdoor-indoor” spaces that benefit from San Jose’s warmer weather and let in sunlight. As Becher said, fans can expect updates on SAP Center’s future over the next week.

“The word we’re using is ‘revamp,'” Becher shared. “Because we really are trying to say, “What happens if we’re not going to tear it down?…It’s not just Sharks hockey, but the 100 other events that happen in this building.”

But the heart of the re-imagined building, of course, will be the San Jose Sharks.

“The nickname the Shark Tank,” Becher said, “will become real.”